The positives of not smoking greatly outweigh the negatives of weight gain. So pork up if it gets you through the day without smoking. The initial cravings for nicotine when you first quit, can be mitigated by substituting food for smoke. Go for it. Zyban (Wellbutrin, bupropion) are promising strategies. For many, the pills do two things; they reduce the cravings and alter the taste of the smoke, giving it a 'chemical' flavor. These drugs are anti-depressants and may also reduce the irritability and anger outbursts experienced by some. I'm definitely not an anti-smoking zealot but the damage by smoking warrants my ire. Quitting is easy; I've done it many times.

My father had a seriously addictive personality, alchohol (quit when I was 17), cigarettes (quit after 2+ pack a day habit in his mid 50's) and food (never quit). He quit smoking in one day with hypnosis. It took him years to quit drinking. The damage smoking had done showed up later after heart surgery. His lungs were so weak he couldn't get off the ventilator and died after languishing in a hospital bed for 9 months. He was in his early 70's.

I never smoked, saw it almost kill my Mom, she developed emphysema in her 40's when I was still a teen. Plus it's just disgusting. I remember being a kid riding around in the car with both my parents smoking begging them to open the windows to get a breath of fresh air.

I see teens smoking now thinking they are cool and somehow anti establishment. There is nothing more "establishment" than the tobacco companies.

Smoked for 36 years. Have quit for a 1 1/2 years. No real difference. Don't cough as much in the morning. Other people smoking doesn't bother me. I can take a drag on one and not feel the urge to go back.
I think most people who talk about how much 'better' everything is, just say that to smokers to make themselves look superior.
My wife still smokes. I don't nag her about it, and honestly, I don't really even notice it, unless she's smoking right next to me.

The smell of cigarettes doesnt bother me in the slightest.

It does to me. IMO the addiction is almost completely mental.

Keep an eye on her, because if she's anything like most ex smokers it's going to get bigger and bigger and.... :-/

I call TOTAL BS. A nice firm body that will attract hot chicks is FAR more important to me than what my insides look like.

A nice pink set of lungs is just not going to get you laid...

So he died in his 70's and you think "smoking" killed him?

+1 to all of that. 100% mirrors my experiences.

you are mistaken, it is just that simple

Yep. He had the same operation a guy his age did, same hospital, same day, same doc. The other guy checked out in 3 days, my Father never did. Other things contributed for sure but his overall lung capacity and health of his heart while passing their pre surgery tests were compromised significantly due to all of the years smoking. I didn't make this crap up, endless doctors in multiple hospitals after the operation all said the same thing. In fact if he'd not spent all the time he did being a slave to cigarettes which also helped lead to a more sedentary life style he probably wouldn't have needed the operation or had the strokes he had in the first place.

You guys keep smoking if you want, I really don't care. I also think many things in moderation can be overcome with good diet and exercise. 5-10 smokes a day is not 2+ packs. I do however know that his heavy smoking over decades was a major factor not just in his death but in a life that was largely sedentary and a waste of natural athletic talent. My Dad was close to a minor league pitching contract in his late teens and a scratch golfer in his 20's and 30's. He spent the last decades of his life on the couch smoking, eating, complaining about his health and watching TV.

2 packs of Newports a day. Quit cold-turkey 18 maybe 19 years ago. Feel 150% better even have run a half marathon. If I'm not mistaken the lungs will actually heal themselves.
Stick with it you'll feel different. 3 months isn't that long for the changes to take place.

I'll put my 100% success rate up against the legions of losers that can't quit with all the various "aids" (cough, cough crutches) out there.

All it takes is will power, nothing more. Pills do not give you will power. Nicorete gum doesnt give you will power, hypnotism doesn't give you will power, etc, etc, etc.

I quit doing lines (age 16) the same way, quit drinking (age 25) the same way, and i quit smoking reefer(age 38) the same way.

Will power, there is no substitute.

You realize your dad is not the other guy right, and that no 2 people are the same?

Sounds to me like he lived a nice long life and it was just his time to go. No offense intended. I don't smoke and i'll be thrilled to make it into my early 70s.

My Dad quit smoking about 3 years before he passed away. He had smoked from the age of 14, I think he told me.

He suffered the last 10 years of his life with COPD and emphysema. While the smoking didn't end his life, it sure made it suck at the end. I didn't quit because of this, though. My wife and I both quit when we started trying to have a baby. We both did not want our kids growing up in a smoking household, as we did.

My Dad's heart could handle the trauma from stomach surgery and stopped. Only after his death did we find out he was full of cancer. Had he known he would have found a way to end his life. (Keep your "suicide is for chickens, losers, etc. to yourself please. He and I had discussed it at length.)

I don't think I'm better than someone else because they smoke. I think that they will regret not quitting when they are on they are on oxygen and can't walk more than a few feet at a time because they can't breathe in enough air. I loved my Dad but I wish he would have stopped at a younger age. It was horrible to see the man I looked up for strength taken down to a feeble old man.:(

Will power, there is no substitute.[/QUOTE]


Snipe, we may not agree on everything but I agree with this statement. I quit smoking cold turkey and have not had one since.
Like anything, you have to WANT to do it to succeed.

Thanks for saying my Dad, not Dad.

And Snipe may I add to your line motivation

[QUOTE=Buckterrier;4855292]Thanks for saying my Dad, not Dad.


Does that bug you , too?


Unless I'm related to the speaker it should be my ----.

Takes about 14 days to lose the physical addiction to nicotine. Much longer to lose the mental craving, and desire.

Your mind is screwing with you when it tells you that there is no difference between smoking and not. It wants you to give it something. It will tell you that things were better when you smoked. In a way it was. Because every time you wanted a distraction, something to change your attitude, something to occupy your hands or mind, every time you wanted to feel like you were doing something useful, you could smake a butt, and blow the top of your head off with a nicotine jolt.

Do not think your addiction isn't running the show right now, because it is. If you keep off the stuff, in a year or so your mind won't be quite so anxious to persuade you to smoke. In five you will hardly care. In ten or so years, you will have a hard time remembering what you saw in the stuff.

If you pick up a single butt, all that will be erased, and everything you worked so hard to achieve will be gone. In a few weeks it will be like you never quit, and for most people they start off as if they never gave it up.

Stick with your original goal, and keep on being smoke free. I hear people all the time saying, ''I quit once.''. No you didn't, you NEVER QUIT !

I quit. And I know what your mind is doing to you, because mine tried to do it to me. Sometimes you have to decide who you are, and what YOU are going to think. Are you going to let your mind tell YOU what to do, or are you going to tell your mind who is running the show ?

Who you are is more than the BS that can stream through the space between your ears. Rewrite the program, and move to another level.

I have seen that too many times to want to recall. And I have seen healthy, vigorous people wither in a very short span of time, way too soon. I have a friend who smokes a fair bit. He calls it his retirement plan.

No offense taken. Sorry if I came across as defensive. I don't mean the comparison to be so literal. Just to point out the different outcomes and what I believe to be one of the main factors in my Fathers death. It really hit home at the time because the other guys wife and my Mom really bonded in the waiting room. I still remember the other lady wishing my Mom well as she and her husband were leaving the hospital.

I get that two people are not the same and there are other factors. I think one is the degree to which my Dad smoked. Very heavily over a long period of time vs. being a lighter smoker or more "social" smoker. I guess the hair gets up on the back of my neck thinking about how much damage smoking did to his overall quality of life and contributing to his very grizzly last 9 months in a hospital bed.

71 isn't that long of a life and the quality of his last 20 years was terrible. Other things were factors including his lack of will power over other negative things in his life. I don't think all people can just quit cold turkey but I agree with you that will power over smoking and other negatives in your life like over eating, too much TV or Web time, etc. is key to controlling your quality of life.

Sorry, off my soap box now :D

Of course, though in this instance will power and motivation are almost interchangeable terms.

Bro you have as much right to your soapbox as any of the rest of us do. :)